Parquet flooring.



W. A. HALL. v

. PARQUET FLOORING.

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W. A. HALL;

PARQUET FLOORING.

APPLIOATION FILED MAY 2, 1910.

- Patented Dec. 6, 1910. v

WWW/mam WILLIAM A. HALL, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE CINCINNATI COOPERAGE COMPANY, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

PARQUET FLOORING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 6, 1910.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. HALL, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of Cincinnati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Parquet Flooring, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

The object of my invention is first: to provide a construction of blocks for parquet flooring in which the short hard wood strips or sections making up the blocks may be permanently and securely bound together before they are located on the floor, so that the tendency to warp shall be entirely avoided; and second: to provide a ready and convenient means for attaching the blocks in place without the use of nails, so that they may be accurately and rapidly secured without the difiiculty and painstaking care involved under ordinary circumstances.

Parquet flooring is formed from short strips of the selected wood which are fitted together in various geometric forms to make the desired pattern for the parquet flooring. As usually furnished, the strips are bound together in the form of blocks with a flexible backing of canvas, and in securing the blocks to the foundation floor, each strip has to be pushed and forced to place and secured by numerous nails along each edge of the strip and an inch or two apart, so as to avoid the tendency to warp. These nails are each countersunk and then the flooring dressed down and each nail opening filled. This method of laying the flooring necessarily involves great labor and expense so that parquet flooring, although the hard wood material is composed of short strips, is far more expensive by reason of the labor cost than the flooring made from long strips. It is to obviate these disadvantages that my invention is directed, and it consists in that novel construction and method of attachment to be hereinafter particularly pointed out and claimed, in which the short strips are permanently secured together in the form of the blocks desired by metal lates or strips, which strips are provided irith means for attaching the blocks to the flooring without the necessity of the use of nails and the consequent labor and care required under ordinary methods.

In the drawings, Figure l is a perspective view of the under side of one of my improved blocks. Fig. 2 is a plan view of a section of the flooring. Fig. 3 is a detail section of a part of a block taken on the lines 3, 3, of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the under side of another construction of block. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of one of the metal binding strips; Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section of one of the blocks as secured to the foundation floor. Fig. 7 is an enlargedsection showing the means for attaching the blocks to the floor. Fig. 8 is a plan view of the foundation floor as prepared for the securing of the blocks. Fig. 9 is a perspective view of the pattern board employed for securing the floor staples in proper position. Fig. 10 is a detail section showing the method of using the pattern board.

1 represents the short strips from which the parquet flooring is constructed. Instead of strips as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, small blocks 2, as shown in Fig. 4, may also be used to make up the blocks. These strips 1 or blocks 2 are at the factory clamped together in a long series in frames and grooves 3, 3 are cut across all the blocks simultaneously in the bottom surface. Metal plates or strips at, 4:, of the length of each block, are prepared, provided with a number of tongues 5, 5, formed by cutting the metal and bending up the tongues at the base, and then turning them parallel with the strips. At the same time a smaller tongue 6 is formed near the base of each main tongue in the same way and these smaller tongues are turned inwardly toward the metal strip as shown in Figs. 3 and 7. The metal strips are also provided with a convenient number of teeth or tangs 8 formed by cutting angular cuts in the metal and bending down the points. These metal strips are then secured in the base of each groove by driving the teeth 8 into the wood.

The number of tongues 5 for each strip and the number of teeth 8, of course may be varied, but I have found that at least three tongues for each strip are preferable and that it is advisable to provide the same number of securing teeth for each tongue. Sufficient number of teeth are provided to securely fasten the strip to the several strips making up the block, so that each strip of wood will be firmly secured to the metal plate. The blocks thus rigidly secured together are then ready for use. By cutting the grooves accurately and while held in the clamping frames securing the metal plates 4 in the grooves, the strips are accurately and perfectly fitted together forming a block which can be attached to the foundation floor without fitting each individual wooden strip in place.

In order to secure the blocks in place on the foundation floor 15, staples are driven into the foundation floor at regular intervals to be engaged by the tongues 5. These staples are preferably formed with a horizontal portion 9 and two pointed shanks 1O 11.

It is evident that in order to properly engage the tongues, the staples must be accurately driven.- To provide for this, I prepare a pattern plate 12 the same size as the blocks and of a thickness to form a gage for the depth the staples are to be driven into the floor. Diagonal slots 13 are cut in this pattern plate; the location of the lowermost end 14 of these slots is accurately determined with reference to the base of the tongues 5, so that when the block is driven to place on the floor, the shank 10 for the staples will stand at the base of the tongues. The slots are preferably made diagonal in order that both shanks of the staples may not lie in the same horizontal or vertical line, so that if one shank should happen to come within a crack on the foundation floor, the other shank will miss the crack. The pattern plate is then laid on the foundation floor in the position a corresponding block is to occupy when secured, and the staples are driven into the floor through the slots 13 as a guide, the horizontal portion 9 of the staple being brought flush with the top of the pattern plate. 7

As many staples are furnished as there are looking tongues 5 on the blocks, and in order that the shanks of the staples may force the blocks tightly against each other, I reverse the pattern for each block so that for one block one side of the tongues bear against the shanks of the staples, and for the adjoining blocks the other side of the tongues have this function.

The staples being driven as above described, I take one of the blocks with the grooves and locking tongues underneath and force the block forward so that each tongue 5 engages under the horizontal portion of its corresponding staple, and I push the block forward until the horizontal portion of the staple passes beyond the smaller tongue 6 of each tongue as shown in Fig. 7 when the block will be permanently locked to the floor.

WVhere strips are employed to make up the block as shown in Fig. 1, in driving the first block to its place on the floor, the edge of the locking tongues bears against the shanks of the staples and the block is forced into position diagonally. With the next block, the staples being set at a different angle by reversing and turning the pattern board, the block is also forced diagonally into position to tightly hug the first block and so on indefinitely.

WVhile I have described my invention with reference to short strips and small blocks, it will be understood, however, that very many designs may be made with small and even irregular sections of wood fitted together and afterward sawed into blocks and in which the small pieces are bound together by metal strips or even by a metal plate the size of the block; all this without departing from the spirit of my invention.

The primary object of my invention, as

already indicated, is to furnish blocks for parquet fioorin which shall be warpless by reason of the act that each section of the wood is permanently and rigidly secured to each other section by a metal plate or strip, of sufficient thickness to prevent warping. The number of plates or strips is not material, broadly considered, and a single plate of the size of the block would accomplish this result.

The second object is to provide means for attaching this metal plate or plates to the foundation floor withoutthe use of nails or at least without the use of the great number of nails now required for this purpose, and with this object in view, the number of locking tongues and their shape and the kind of staple, or holding device fastened to the foundation floor is not material and may be varied in many ways without departing from my invention. It will also be evident that my blocks may be readily used for wainscoting and other like purposes in addition to their use as parquet flooring.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. As a new article of manufacture, a parquet floor block, comprising a series of sections of wood fitted together to form the block, with grooves in the under surface of the block, and metal plates countersunk in the grooves, to which each section is inclividually secured to prevent warping and to render the block easy of attachment as an entirety upon the flat surfaces of the floor.

2. In a parquet flooring, a series of sections of wood, with grooves on the under surface of the sections, and metal strips countersunk in said grooves and secured to the sections to bind the sections together to form a block with means connected with the metal strips. to secure said blocks to th'& foundation floor.

3. In a parquet flooring, a series of sections of wood, with parallel grooves on the under surface of the sections, and metal strips countersunk in said grooves and secured to the sections to bind the sections together to form a block with means connected with the metal strips to secure the said blocks to'the foundation floor.

4. In a parquet flooring, a series of sections of wood, with parallel grooves on the under surface of the sections, and metal strips mounted in said grooves and secured to the sections, to bind the sections together to form a block, said metal strips provided with tongues and staples in the foundation floor with which said tongues engage to secure the blocks to the floor.

5. In a parquet flooring, a series of sections of wood, with parallel grooves on the under surface of the sections, and metal strips mounted in said groovesand secured to the sections, to bind the sections together to form a block, said metal strips provided with pointed tongues and staples in the foundation floor with which the side edges of the tongues engage to force the blocks into place, said staples having horizontal portions under which the tongues also engage to secure the blocks to the floor.

6. In a parquet flooring, a series of sections of wood, with parallel grooves on the under surface of the sections, and metal strips mounted in said grooves and secured to the sections, to bind the sections together to form a block, said metal strips provided with pointed tongues and staples in the foundation floor with which the side edges of the tongues engage to force the blocks into place, said staples having horizontal portions under which the tongues also engage, with inwardly turned tongues on the first named tongues to engage behind the horizontal portion of the staples to lock the blocks to the floor.

WILLIAM A. HALL.

Attest:

MARs'roN ALLEN, K. SMITH. 

